As is well understood in society, oil and natural gas play a very important role in the development of both the United States economy and the global economy. Devices and systems that depend on oil and natural gas are found throughout society. In order to mine these resources, a significant amount of time and money is being spent in locating and extracting oil, natural gas, and other subterranean resources from the earth. This includes both onshore and offshore drilling depending on the location of the resource. The extraction systems generally include a wellhead assembly through which the resource is extracted. The wellhead assembly may include a variety of components. These components include a variety of casings, valves, fluid conduits, etc., that control the extraction and drilling operations.
A variety of materials may be inserted into or removed from a well. These include transporting drilling fluid into the well, providing pipes to allow drilling fluids, mud, and cuttings to flow up from the well, drill pipes connecting to a drill bit or other tool at the end of the well, or a riser that may be coupled to a blow out preventer that can seal off the well in certain situations.
During the drilling operations a pipe or other material may break within the well either due to accidental breakage or due to the need to seal off the well under an emergency. This may involve the blowout preventer bending, cutting, shearing or otherwise deforming the drill pipe or other components in the wellhead. These components that are left within the wellhead are referred to as fish. Retrieval of the fish through “fishing” may be challenging, time consuming and expensive. Accordingly, what is needed is an efficient method to remove the fish from a well casing.